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A Nerd’s Guide to the 2024 Vancouver Fringe Festival

For those unable to make it to the Victoria show, the Vancouver Fringe Festival will have a few acts from this island show on the mainland!

Vancouver Fringe Festival Generic — **Runs September 5th to 15th, 2024**

The Vancouver Fringe Festival is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and this event promises to be big. Just where one can find the cake will depend on what they announce for parties. And for those at Terminal City from September 5th to 15th, Granville Island will be abuzz with lots of fun events for all to enjoy! This list does not include the acts from the Victoria show that will be coming over. For a list on that, please visit this guide.

What I offer is mostly a sampling. As I’ve said before in my preview for the Victoria event, each year won’t necessarily be representative of everything that can arrive for any local event. Here are my top five picks (please note, the links go to this festival’s ticket office for that show).

Hot Dog!

Devon More Music

Hot Dog! Devon More Music presents an outdoor art-rock show… for the dogs! Canines and their human companions can enjoy Devon’s infectious originals alongside curious cover songs in the open air – under the cover of Granville Island’s Picnic Pavilion. This show aims to turn the old adage “never work with children or animals” on its head, and prove that anything is paw-sible!

All well-socialized dogs and humans, big or small, young or old are welcome to join in the pet-a-palooza. Parade your pet and earn tasty treats for tremendous tricks (provided by the Granville Island Pet Treatery). Have a ball with Devon’s Doggy Dance Party. Regardless of how ruff your day is going, this is sure to be a chance to unleash yourself and raise the woof!

seaMAN

2 Sleepy RatGuys

SeaMAN Promotional Card YARGH! Join the saltiest sea captain ever on a “30min scenic boat tour” This queer nautical comedy is like the deranged love child of Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse and Gilligan’s Island. This show is a whirlwind of revenge-fueled sea-venture combining outrageous physical comedy with a few dark twists and turns.

Alternately played by two actors, it’s a one-man-show by two featuring the saltiest sailor to ever set sail on the several seas. Prepare yourself for a hilarious on-stage scenic boat tour that promises fishing, the ocean breeze … and SO much more.

Full Metal Comedy

Full Metal Comedy

Full Metal Comedy is a stand up comedy show based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It was started by Shawn Cuthand and Danny Knight as a way to get stage time in Saskatchewan. In the prairies you can literally see that there is no stage time for miles and days! The show works like an open mic to encourage new comedians to give it a try, but for the Vancouver Fringe, we’re bringing our best!

Shawn Cuthand is a writer/comedian and producer based in Treaty 6 Territory from Little Pine First Nation. He is a part of The Feather News on APTN Lumi and has been doing stand up for 6 years. Danny Knight is an actor/writer/comedian and director from Muskoday First Nation and is the host of The Feather News on APTN Lumi. Ryan Moccasin is a writer/comedian and producer from Saskatoon, SK and is the CEO of The Feather News. he is also a novelist with the book “Suicide Empire” in his credits. Cheyenna Sapp will be at the first half of the shows as well. Cheyenna is a stand up comedian/actress/writer from Little Pine First Nation. She plays “Rose” on CTV’s Acting Good and performs all over Canada making communities laugh. Local comedian Sasha Mark will also be helping curate from the local talent pool to provide guest spots and hosting opportunities for the festival.

Camp Goneaway

Ragamuffin Productions

Camp Goneaway Promotional Card What’s lurking in the lake? Margot and Evie are best friends. When they hear a legendary sea monster is hiding in the depths of their camp waters, they are determined to uncover its secrets. For fans of Gravity Falls and The Babysitters Club Mysteries, this heartfelt campfire jamboree explores the relationship between girlhood and eco-anxiety.

This is a new work from award winning company Ragamuffin Productions: June Bug, FRANK.

Proximity: The Space Between Us

Theatre Terrific

Proximity- The Space Between Us Amidst the improbability of connections forming around us, “Proximity: The Space Between Us” , co-created by an all-abilities cast, delves into the delicate balance of distance and connection. Through a series of interconnected narratives that open into a realm of infinite possibility, this physical theatre piece embraces the emotional and physical complexities that define our shared humanity, inviting audiences to reflect on the threads that unite and separate us.

When New Wave Your Behaviour Is Better Than Strangling It at the Victoria Fringe

Modifying your life isn’t too hard in this musical comedy where New Wave Your Behaviour shows how sonic therapy is benificial.

Hamilton7

Tor Lukasik-Foss is a performer who has issues, and when he transforms his feelings into an act simply titled New Wave Your Behaviour, I’m sure many people can relate. In this show, his character is having more than just your average mid-life crisis. In fact, he’s diagnosed with a Dissociative disorder.

It’s become troublesome enough where he’s been “discharged” from work until he can sort things out. The higher-ups are kind to keep him sort of on the payroll, and with more time at home, his family are somewhat liking having him around and hating it (when he has his episodes) at the same time.

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When Andrew Bailey’s Brain Machine is Operating at the Victoria Fringe Festival 2024, Not Everything is Meant to Compute!

…but when it does, this brilliant play about the life and times of the narrator against society, machine learning (hence the title Brain Machine) and Life(tm) does have meaning in that strange Monty Python type of way.

Andrew Bailey's Brain Machine Anyone not familiar with Andrew Bailey‘s work may find Brain Machine disjointed and seemingly randomly transitioning from one story to another. It’s like those monologues one sees on a late night talk show, where the host can talk about anything, and audiences will laugh. Although I stopped watching these types of shows when Arsenio Hall’s show went off the air, this spoken word comedy caught my attention because I liked the title.

As a result, I paid more attention to his thoughts on the growth of Silicon Valley. Although he lived nowhere near, the stuff he had to say about the development of ARPANET to distributed data in a network and eventually the Internet, makes up one third of the show.

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Jon Bennett’s Ameri-can’t at Victoria Fringe 2024 Is Heartfelt Than Just A Rant

Whichever spelling people want to use to describe Jon Bennett’s Ameri-can’t or simply American’t, this show is about the can do attitude this comedian eventually decided to follow than not to be the success that he is!

2Hoots Productions

When Jon Bennett‘s latest Fringe show, Ameri-can’t, hints at a performance about what the United States of America is incapable of getting back in control, that’s because what’s revealed isn’t too far from the truth. The reports he shows regarding gun control and limiting its use are spot on. And there are aspects he loves, namely the people and how lively the arts scene is here.

Even in 2024, there’s no denying the impact of the pandemic is still lingering around, and while some talents struggled to get by, he’s turned his experience into one rip-roaring, hilarious show that’s not without a message. Anyone who has experienced suicidal thoughts during this time should seek help, and his openness about it is truly eye-opening.

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When Fern Flowers Bloom Only One Day of the Year, It’s Not Just at the Victoria Fringe Festival!

In order to appreciate The Lighter Touch Art Collective’s play, When Fern Flowers Bloom, this primer will serve as a guide and be a review on what’s beautiful about this tragic tale of love, loss and life.

The Lighter Touch Art Collective

Audiences wanting to see When Fern Flowers Bloom is best advised to know some aspects of Latvia folklore to fully appreciate every element this play offers. Otherwise, the symbolic elements may seem foreign. After seeing this show at the Victoria Fringe Festival, I want to dive even deeper into the lore because I suspect this tale also explores why the seasons change.

Just how this story begins had me vibing with “Here Comes The Sun,” by The Beatles but by the finale, I was thinking “Who’ll Stop the Rain?” by CCR. When the knowledge that Death is one of the characters, what’s presented addresses the traditions and rituals leading to Summer Solstice. Every culture celebrates it differently. Here, Jāņis (Erik Karklins) is a living incarnation of this season, and when this lady of the night can deliver more than a smile to his face every day, I fear for him!

Although Nāve’s (Sarah Ivanco) innocent side is that of a beautiful young woman in search of the rare Fern flower, there is more to her than meets the eye.

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At the Victoria Fringe Festival 2024, The Wasteland Preachers Shows How Life Doesn’t Have to Be Like A Castle of Glass

The hope here is that Wasteland Preachers can turn their live show Castle of Glass to a proper album for all to listen to!

Castle of Glass Publicity Still When a lonely young man is wailing over lost opportunities, including a failed marriage, just what else can he (Jeremy James Sinclair) do? Sing, of course! Here, the band Wasteland Preachers has a concept album that really needs to be put on CD or Streaming. Castle of Glass is an appropriate title about how fragile life can be.

What works the best is that the music will speak to you. These tunes are more than reflections on his journey, but also explosive revelations. It’s like hearing a different version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, without the Mother figure and Girlfriend as key antagonists. Well, technically, there’s a reference to both, but they aren’t as in your face as Roger Waters makes them out to be. His concept album concerned a persona going through the paces, and this show didn’t have a huge spoken narrative component.

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